Change law that puts children in jail for minor offences, says report

Campaigners call for minor youth offences to be seen as public health issue after justice system failings lead to 190 deaths

A new report by the Prison Reform Trust and INQUEST calls for youth minor offences not to be treated as custodial crimes after citing 190 deaths in a decade caused by failings in the justice system. Photograph: Paul Doyle/Alamy

Minor offences by children should be treated as a public health issue and not as crimes, according to a new report revealing failings in the justice system have cost 190 lives in a decade.

The report says that the failings are "systemic" and that children and young people sent to jail are often the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.

The report has been produced by the Prison Reform Trust and the group INQUEST, which campaigns for measures to cut deaths in custody.

A decade ago the death of 16-year-old Joseph Scholes in a young offender institution exposed failings, with an official panel saying he should have been placed in secure council care after being convicted of stealing mobile phones.

The expert panel concluded in an internal Prison Service report that Joseph's problems had been so great the institution could not provide the care he needed. He had a history of mental problems, triggered by sexual abuse.

The new report says in the decade since Joseph's death, nine children and 188 youths under the age of 24 have died in prisons or secure training centres.

The report concludes: "The custody threshold should be raised to ensure imprisonment becomes a true last resort, and is reserved for the minority of children and young people who commit serious violent offences and who pose a significant risk to others. Prison should not be the default response to low-level persistent offending.

"Minor offences and anti-social behaviour committed by children and young people should be viewed as a public health, rather than criminal justice, issue and diverted to the health, welfare and other agencies which are best-placed to address them."

In a foreword to the report, the former chief inspector of prisons Lord Ramsbotham said poor management was to blame: "This system and services in the community, whose failures are described in the report, have demonstrably let young people down, for all the wrong reasons, for far too long.

"As poor and inconsistent management, manifested in the failure to implement lessons learned, is behind most of the findings, I hope that a system is developed that holds named managers to account for overseeing policy implementation and improving practice."

The report examined in detail the cases of 98 children and young people who died, and concluded they were "some of the most disadvantaged in society" and had experienced problems with mental health, self-harm, alcohol and drugs.

Their cases saw communication failures between community agencies and prisons while, in others, they were placed in prisons with unsafe environments and cells, the report said.

Yvonne Bailey, the mother of Joseph, said: "It is now over a decade since my son Joseph died in fear and distress hanging from the window bars of his squalid cell in a children's prison," she said.

"The deaths of a further nine young boys are devastating evidence that the changes implemented were yet again wholly insufficient to fulfil the duty on the state to protect the right to life of the children it imprisons.

"I am saddened and perplexed by the continuing and repeated refusal of successive governments to properly investigate through a public inquiry the circumstances that have led to the deaths of child prisoners."

Calls for a public inquiry after the death of Joseph were rejected by the then Labour government.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: "Every death in custody is a tragedy for families and friends and has a profound effect on staff and other prisoners.

"The rate of self-inflicted deaths has fallen by approximately 40% since 2004, but we are committed to further reducing the numbers of deaths in custody."